Time to Spring to arrive!

I love snow......in winter.  But we are now solidly into March.  Rain and wind are perfectly acceptable weather patterns, but this is not:

Those two greyish blobs in the photo are my yearling rams that I have grown out over the winter.  At least one will be making the trip to Colorado to participate in the National Lincoln Show & Sale at Estes Park in June.  My first major sheep related road trip!

Inside, thank goodness, it is warm and dry.  My best friend lives back east - she sent me a photo of her daughter amongst the crocuses this morning - no such luck here, however my mini roses are doing their best to brighten up the day.

400 Trees

Last year, our farm was awarded a grant for water management in the barn yard.  At the same time, we enrolled in the CREP (Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program) as we have a stream that runs along the edge of our pastures and empties into the North Yamhill River.  In our case, the CREP program seeks to establish trees on the sides of streams, in order to lower the water's average temperature, creating a healthier environment for the beasties that live there (salmon, frogs etc.)  This past weekend, we spent a number of hours planting 400 seedlings on either side of the stream.  Here is Nicholas, getting the soil ready for some Douglas Firs in our western most pasture:

We planted a selection of native trees, including big leaf maples, ash, crab apples, douglas firs, western cedars and willows.  It will be fun to see them grow and create a shaded environment in the years to come.  This is a voluntary land retirement program which allows agricultural producers protect environmentally sensitive land. Will and Pete enjoying a break in the sunshine after planting many trees and flagging them so that we can see them when we mow in the months to come.  It was a bit of a challenge to convince Pete not to "fetch" all the seedlings.......

Too much of a good thing is not a good thing

One can't complain about rain during the winter in western Oregon - it is just part of life.  By the second half of October, we are usually quite wet, and it pretty much stays that way (with the occasional sun break) through May.  This year, our December was unusually dry and it appears that Mother Nature has decided to correct the error of her ways.  After a couple of days of snow, we are now getting pounded with a series of storms coming off of the Pacific.  Just to the south of us, there is a part of the Coastal Range that got 7" of rain over the last 24 hours.  Combine that with snow melt off of the mountains, and we have one heck of a mess on our hands.  Our farm lies between the base of the Coastal Range and the North Yamhill River - which means that every drop of water that rolls down the eastern side of the mountains seems to cross our place before it gets to the river............Let's just say I was surprised not to encounter andy salmon swimming upstream in one of the barns this morning.  Even when the rains stop for a while, there is still so much water coming out of the hills, that it flows in torrents across roads and fields - here are 2 photos of the water coming out of our western most pasture and tumbling down into the stream which runs along our farm.

Lambing has started!

Just a quick note to announce the beginning of lambing.  The girls have started things off with a BANG!  Two sets of triplets were born this morning - a white and a natural colored set.  5 of the 6 lambs are boys, and they are all doing well.  The natural colored triplets were already dry and fed by the time I made it out to the barn this morning, but only one of the white ones was on the ground.  By the way his mother was calling and circling, I knew that there were more in the pipeline, and sure enough, within the span of the next 40 minutes, she produced two more.  The good news is that both of these mothers can count (not always a given in the ovine world.)  Sometimes a sheep mom can't count above "2" and she refuses to accept that she has given birth to 3 children.  Convincing her otherwise can be an arduous task.  Both of these ewes have plenty of milk, so it looks like supplementing won't be necessary. 

Continuing Education

We put a great deal  of emphasis on education in our household.....and sometimes I also like to take classes, to keep my mind sharp and to learn a new skill or brush up on an existing one.  This past fall, I had the opportunity to enroll in a 2 day workshop at Anderson Fiber Works over in Gresham, OR - just on the far side of Portland.  Jen Anderson (of Hanks in the Hood) and her husband Tyler created Anderson Fiber Works earlier this year and it is a great place to shop for original dyed rovings, batts and yarns.  Here is a cowl I made from a Hanks in the Hood batt:

In any case, I signed up for a workshop with Jaycee Boggs.  The topic was making creative and unique yarns.  The class took place in the upstairs of Anderson Fiber Works and there were around 20 of us:

The atmosphere was very friendly and creative......apparently some of us were more prepared than others to get those artistic juices flowing.  I had never seen one of these before and it instantly made its way to the top of my Christmas wish list.

Using fiber from Hanks in the Hood/Anderson Fiber works, we spun a range of funky yarns, with a focus not only on the unique nature of the construction, but also on durability and usefulness.  I personally think this is important when putting together a handspun yarn of any kind.  If  I spend that much time to make something, I want it to last for more than a couple of months.  Below on the left is a single and on the right is that same single after it has been put through a plying process which includes some pushing, pulling and changes in tension between the right and the left hand that strained my brain but left me feeling that I had learned something new and fun.

The Start of the Rainy Season

Here in western Oregon, the weather has changed - the rainy season is upon us.  How strange that we can go from dry 90 degree weather to the cool damp of clouds and rain and know that we will not shift back until June of the next year.  The change happens quickly - one day you walk out the door and you know that the rainy season has arrived.

As you can see from this photo, the fields are still quite green.  The long, wet and mild Spring allowed most of our grass to survive through the summer.  Usually the hot and dry temperatures of August and early September cause the grass to go dormant.  However this year, there was enough moisture in the ground to allow the pastures to remain productive.  Part of the trick is to spend the money on good seed which is later maturing, so it does not bolt and go to seed in early June.  Our adult brood ewes are out in the fields and won't require grass hay until we pull them off in another couple of weeks so that lime can be applied to counteract the acidity caused by leeching from our long and wet winters.

On my way up to the biggest pasture, my two frisky ram lambs, came to visit.  They are the best of this year's crop of ram lambs and they get to grow all winter and then be shown as yearlings - I hope to bring them to the National Lincoln Show & Sale in Estes Park, CO next June.  One is a lovely silver while the other is a soft black color.  As you can see, photographing sheep is like taking a picture of a dog - all you get a lot of the time is nostrils!

 On the way back down the alley, I realized that I still had eggs in my barn coat pocket.  My youngest is helping care for the chickens - he sells the eggs under his business name of "Nick's Chicks."  The children have had a great time thinking up a logo design for this fledgling enterprise.  The dark brown egg is from our lone Welsummer hen.  The reason that she is the only one is because our young guard dog discovered how the joy of using chickens as chew toys......No old or slow chickens left.

Jerry the Mouse

Apparently my summer blew up when the children ended their school year.  To be fair, June is always busy leading up to the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, but this year, I spent the month of July preparing to go away on what we fondly call a non-hospital vacation during the first half of August.

Three weeks ago while at a horse barn, I heard a strange noise coming from the hay stack.  What I thought was a bird, turned out to be two orphaned baby field mice, crawling about looking for their mother.  As the barn cat sat about 2 feet from where this scene was playing out, I think we can all guess what happened to Mama Mouse.  I scooped them up and brought them home - Tom was slightly larger and his eyes were already open a little.  Jerry's eyes were closed but both babies had some fur.  I watered down some puppy formula from a previous (failed) mouse raising experiment - those we found in the carburetor of the riding lawn mower, an indication that we had not been diligent about mowing the lawn.  In any case, as always, the children asked me if the babies were going to survive and I answered "I don't know" while thinking "heck no."

Here is a photo of Jerry in my daughter Maya's hand, the day after he came home to live with us.

After 24 hours, both Tom and Jerry were doing well, drinking puppy formula from a tiny eye dropper.  However after 48 hours, something was clearly wrong with Tom, and he died on day #3.  Fast forward 3 weeks later and Jerry has surprised us all.......we are now the proud parents of a slightly tame field mouse who likes to eat scraps from the dinner table and comes out of his nest when you call his name.  Meet Jerry the Mouse.